CONTEMPLATING THE HOLY CROSS

THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

Numb 21:4-9; Ps 78:1-2,34-38; Jn 3:13-17

The Cross and the Mystery of Jesus Christ

The holy Cross of Jesus Christ is part and parcel of the mystery of Jesus Christ. Hence, we celebrate the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross as an opportunity to highlight this constitutive aspect of the salvation Jesus Christ won for us. When we speak of a cross, we refer to everything unpleasant to our human nature, which, therefore, forms part of the punishment that comes to our human nature for our sins against God’s infinite goodness. It follows that suffering, as a cross, entered into human history at the very moment of the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve. Taking the testimony of the word of God in the book of Genesis, God decreed sufferings, pains, and death as a punishment for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they listened to the voice of the tempter in disobedience to the word of God. We locate the objective cause of human crosses in sin, that is, in disobedience to the will of the Father. Because the word of God is spirit and lifegiving, disobedience to the word would invariably cause pain, suffering, and death. Since the source of sin is at the very principle of our human nature, the source of crosses is there also. There is, therefore, nothing we can do to escape crosses. Only two people were not associated with the cross by birth: Jesus Christ and his Mother Mary. Their association with human crosses was by choice, and hence, salvific for us.

Because sin is a universal experience of human nature, suffering is also a given in our lived experience of human nature, individually and collectively. But it must be objectified and related to God to become a constitutive part of our salvation experience. This is what the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness, as narrated in the first reading, points out for us. The cross follows from the cause of sin without fail, but it becomes part of our healing process when we consider it and relate it properly to the sin we have committed against God. When contemplated, the cross helps us to understand how grievous we have sinned against God. The Israelites derived this benefit from looking at the bronze serpent made by Moses in the wilderness. A gaze at the bronze serpent helped them to instantiate and objectify their sinful behaviour against God that brought the serpent. The serpents were symbolic and connect us to the origin of sin. “At this God sent fiery serpents among the people; their bite brought death to many in Israel. The people came and said to Moses, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede for us with the Lord to save us from these serpents.’” They died by following a contrary spirit that led them to rebel against God.

The idea of the cross represents pain, suffering, and death. The cross is used to reveal the evil of sin and to lead us to its solution. The high point in its representation of death due to sin is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. It is also the high point of the reversal of its role by the Eternal Word of God, who assumed our human nature to repair the damage done to human nature by the evil one and sin. Hence, speaking to Nicodemus, our Lord informed us that he came to play the role the bronze serpent played in the case of the Israelites in the wilderness for mankind. “The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” In lifting his Son on the cross, God helped man become aware of his sin against God, which is the cause of his death. At the same time, he offers man salvation if he embraces the death of God’s Son for him. We die whenever we disobey God’s will. But our death will turn to life if we accept his just punishment, proclaim the justice of God, and repent of our sins by believing in the infinite love of God, who gave us his Son to rescue us from the evil serpent, sin, and death that follows. We celebrate and exalt in the Cross of Jesus Christ, in our sufferings, pains, and death because they now share in the salvific values of the death of God’s Son. Our exaltation in the cross helps us to follow the Holy Spirit, who guides us in living the word of God into the mystery of Jesus Christ. By doing this, we shall never forget the loving deeds of the Lord.  

Let us pray: O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven.